NXP rolls fail-safe automotive chips

HAMBURG, Germany  Adressing increasingly complex in-car networking applications, NXP has introduced a family of fail-safe System Basis Chips (SBC), designed do communicate via LIN bus or CAN bus.

The devices can be used in a variety of applications in body control and comfort electronics and can be integrated into vehicle environments from different OEMs, NXP explained. In order to ensure low power consumption, the devices also can support restrictive activation of those ECUs needed for communication.

Intended to support in-vehicle networking (IVN) applications that control various power and sensor peripherals through CAN as main network interface and LIN as local sub-bus, the SBCs according to the vendor offer fail-save behavior. Thus, users can prevent system deadlocks, NXP claims.

In addition, the devices offer status reporting on system and subsystem levels, sport a controlled system start-up and offer smart power management modes. Perhaps the most significant feature is the ability to create partial CAN networks, supporting fault tolerant CAN as well as high-speed CAN.

The devices contain integrated diagnostics circuitry for smart Electronic Control Units (ECUs). In complex automotive electronics environments, these diagnostic capabilities of the new chip family helps to detect problems at the service shop- in some cases even before the driver notices, explained Product Marketing Manager Rob Bouwer.

For the start, NXP will offer two varieties of the chip, supporting either fault tolerant or high-speed CAN/LIN configurations.